The Golden Age of Basketball

On February 2, the Trail Blazers played against the Seattle SuperSonics at home. Among the few teams that have beaten the Trail Blazers this season, the Seattle SuperSonics are on the list.

At the beginning of the season, the supersonics main power forward Tom Chambers was abducted by the sun, and the team did not have any special reinforcements. through.

As a result, after experiencing the ups and downs at the beginning of the season, the record of the Seattle Supersonics began to stabilize in January. The Supersonics lost three games in January, two games less than the Trail Blazers. Among the opponents are the Lakers, Trail Blazers, Hawks, Rockets and other relatively strong teams.

There are several important reasons for Seattle's unexpected strength. One is that although Chambers left, the power forward Michael Cage transferred from the Clippers did fill the vacancy. Not on Chambers, but he provides inside hardness, rebounding and defense that Chambers does not have.

The second reason is the further explosion of the Sonics' top scorer Dell Ellis this season. Existence, never get the chance to play, talents and talents are buried on the Mavericks' bench.

In the 1987 season, the Supersonics exchanged Ellis to the team. Ellis completed a gorgeous turn. He played a small forward in the Mavericks and changed to a shooting guard in the Supersonics. His scoring average increased from 7.1 points in the previous season. It soared to 24.9 points, more than three times the original score. His ability was fully released in the Sonics, and he won the title of Most Improved Player that season.

By 1989, with the departure of Chambers, Ellis came to a peak of his career, his scoring average came to 27.5 points, becoming one of the league's best backcourt scorers.

Moreover, Ellis is currently one of the deadliest three-point shooters in the league. He averaged 4.1 three-pointers per game, hit 2, and his three-point shooting percentage was as high as 40.00%. , His three-pointer made the Blazers' outside defense miserable. At that time, Adelman asked to quickly supplement the defensive rotation and expand the defensive area to deal with Ellis' three-pointer. However, Ellis, who changed from small forward to shooting guard, was tall Reaching 6 feet 7, the ability to shoot and resist interference is very strong.

It was relying on his three-point containment that disrupted the Blazers' defensive deployment, and the Supersonics defeated the Blazers in an upset.

The second reason for the Supersonics record is that they have a super sixth man, "x-man" Xavier McDaniel.

As a student at the same level as Ewing in 1985, in the selection of the best rookie, McDaniel was second only to Ewing in terms of votes due to his outstanding performance. In this regard, he and Gan Guoyang have the same disease.

As a high-ranking pick with the fourth place in the first round, McDaniel has always sat on the bench, not because of his lack of strength, but because he is a professional sixth man.

At 6 feet 7, he is actually very similar to Buck Williams in terms of position. They are both small forwards and power forwards, but Williams is biased towards power forwards, and McDaniel is biased towards small forwards. This is because McDaniel has more Good outside skills and shooting skills, which allow him to be able to catch rebounds inside and shoot long shots from the outside. Just like his nickname "x-man", he is a man with x functions Jack of all trades players.

And McDaniel is extremely tough, no matter who the opponent is, the emperor is not afraid of him, so after the Supersonics left Chambers, a soft white man, these two players became leaders on the court and on the bench. The record is not falling but rising.

For the Blazers, both are headaches.

As a result, throughout the entire game, when the starters of the two sides were fighting each other on the court, the Blazers could always maintain their advantage, but once they entered the lineup rotation and McDaniel played, if Gan Guoyang could still cure him on the court, McDaniel would be fine when Gan Guoyang was off the court. Lawless, but Gan Guoyang can't stay on the field forever, and Adelman is always worried that Gan Guoyang will fight with McDaniel, and the physical conflicts between the two are extremely frequent on the field.

McDaniel scored 37 points in the whole game, shooting 21 of 12 shots, and the shooting percentage was as high as 57%. The field really lacks a substitute.

What's more terrible is that Drexler also missed the game because of a cold. Adelman had to let Andre Blans replace the starter. Of the 14 shots in the game, he scored 4 and allowed Ellis to score 33 points.

Even though Gan Guoyang showed his prowess tonight and scored 45 points and 13 rebounds again, the absence of Drexler, the sluggishness of outside players and the outstanding performance of the opponent still made the Blazers lose 115:116 at home to the Supersonics. , At the last moment, Gan Guoyang's game-winning shot also came out of the basket. The Blazers regretted losing at home. They also lost to the Supersonics twice this season.

After the game, Gan Guoyang passed by the bench and saw Jim Paxson sitting on the bench in civilian clothes. He had missed many games because of a foot injury.

Gan Guoyang stepped forward and asked Paxson, "When will you be back?"

After hearing Gan Guoyang's words, Paxson was about to say that I should be able to come back in the next game, but suddenly he thought about it, and Gan Guoyang seemed to have something in his words.

Gan Guoyang did have something in his words. He asked Paxson "when will he come back?" He was not only asking when Paxson would be able to recover from injury, but also when Paxson would be able to regain his form.

In the 1986 season, Paxson was replaced by Drexler as a backup shooting guard. He performed well on the bench that season and became the most stable outside output point on the Blazers bench. An important player in the final.

But in 1987, Paxson's state began to fluctuate. The increase of age and the torment of injuries made the All-Star guard perform worse than one game. In the 1987 season, his scoring average dropped to 12 points. For the first time since his rookie season, his scoring average dropped below 15 points per game.

In 1988, his scoring average declined further, averaging only 8 points per game, and his playing time also shrunk. When he was on the court, his defensive and offensive contributions were limited. He was on the court more just to give Some rest time for Drexler.

In this season, with the further decline of Paxson's state and the troubles of injuries, Adelman is not even willing to let Paxson play. Many times he plays the double point guard of Danny Young and Terry Porter, When he was blown up on the defensive end, he was unwilling to let Paxson play, because Paxson really couldn't keep up with the rhythm of others.

Now, Inman has been looking for a deal, hoping to pack Paxson out for a reliable and stable shooting guard as a backup for Drexler. Drexler's playing time this season has also reached a career high. In 39 minutes, the Blazers desperately needed a reliable substitute.

But with Paxson in this state, no good players can be exchanged. Strong teams don’t want it, and weak teams have no good players. What’s more distressing for Inman is that Gan Guoyang doesn’t really want to replace Paxson. The relationship used to be very bad in the past, but after several seasons passed, especially after Jack Ramsey retired, Paxson became Gan Guoyang's staunch ally, and the relationship between the two became better. Gan Guoyang always hoped that the management could Give Paxson some time to change his style of play and recover.

Paxon looked at Gan Guoyang, hesitated, and said, "I don't know, maybe I'll never come back."

"What are you talking about? You put so much effort and sweat in the summer, just to win the championship in the new season. Do you want to just be traded away, or wear a suit and get a ring? "

It’s not that Paxson doesn’t want to return. In the summer of 1988, he made great efforts to recover. He hired a special trainer for recovery training. At the same time, he took time to practice high-intensity shooting with Gan Guoyang. At the beginning of the season, intermittent injuries prevented him from getting a chance to play at all, which made Paxson, who was full of pride and wanted to fight Gan Guoyang, a little disheartened.

"Jim, we're going to Chicago tomorrow, and Clyde still won't be able to play. Dr. Cook has already told me that you can participate in training tomorrow and perform well in the game the day after tomorrow. We don't have any linemen on the bench anymore! Come on! , Jim, Mr Ramsay's dream, you haven't accomplished yet."